DOOM: The Dark Ages Brings a Medieval Twist to Demon Slaying and Keeps That Fast-Paced Action

The DOOM series has always found ways to keep things interesting. It laid the groundwork for first-person shooters, but it never just sat still. We have seen it shift to survival horror with Doom 3. The 2016 reboot dared to go back to and polish its old-school style. Doom Eternal added parkour-like platforming. Now, Doom: The Dark Ages delivers perhaps the biggest and most impressive shake-up to the series' familiar recipe. It adds brutal, parry-focused close combat. This is an exciting new thing for the already strong run-and-gun action. It makes this medieval entry an absolute blast from beginning to end. I think this might be one of my favorite new additions.

This game is a prequel to the 2016 DOOM game. It has the DOOM Slayer ripping through Hell's armies in a cool techno-medieval setting. Imagine King Arthur mixed with a Borg from Star Trek, and you will get the look of this game. It is a great style that fits the heavy metal soundtrack perfectly. The look mostly serves as an excuse to add neat middle-age changes to the Slayer’s classic tools. The biggest and best new addition is the Shield Saw. This is a motorized, saw-edged shield that lets players block and parry incoming attacks. While using a shield in a DOOM game felt strange at first, it is a brilliantly put together addition. I cannot imagine playing without it going forward.

The Shield Saw Changes How You Fight In DOOM: The Dark Ages

How A New Defensive Tool Makes The Action Even More Dynamic For The DOOM Slayer

Using the Shield Saw is more than just protecting yourself from harm. You can also use it to launch yourself towards a target. This starts as an offensive move, but you can change it to quickly escape from a tight spot. If you are in danger, look for an enemy far away and use your dash! You can also stop enemies with the shield by dashing at them as they prepare their attack. Another option is to throw your shield once that becomes available. When it hits large demons, the shield sticks to them. This stuns them for a few seconds. Use this time to run or finish them off.

Parrying attacks is a big part of DOOM: The Dark Ages. You should always parry when you see attacks highlighted in green. These are called Hell Surge attacks. It does not matter if it is a shockwave or a giant arrow of demonic energy. If it is green, you can parry it and send it back to where it came from. The power of parrying Hell Surge attacks is especially clear when you are fighting many enemies at once. The deflected Hell Surge projectile will not just hit the source; it can also kill anything else close by. Once you unlock some shield upgrades, this ability gets even stronger. There is some timing to get used to when parrying, but you can change it in the settings to fit your play style. The satisfying sound you hear when you parry is also really good. It is like the satisfying "bong" sound when Captain America's shield hits something.

You can also throw the Shield Saw like a disc. This gives you another way to attack from a distance. It is great for cutting smaller demons in half. This also saves your ammo. You can also stun bigger threats by sticking it into their flesh and drilling. I really liked using this last function to stop huge demons and then fill them with bullets. Performing a charging shield bash lets you rush distant targets. This is a good way to close gaps while keeping you moving across the often large battle areas. The shield can only take so many hits before it is temporarily unusable. This means the action keeps the series' frantic need to keep moving. You must outmaneuver and outsmart enemies. Instead of making the danger less scary, the Shield Saw becomes a fun new plan to balance. Block or parry what you can, dodge what you cannot, and never stop moving.

New Melee Attacks And Weapons Keep The Fighting Fresh And Bloody

How Close-Quarters Combat And Varied Firearms Add More Depth To Your Demon Hunting

Improved close combat puts more focus on DOOM: The Dark Ages' direct action. Players now have three close combat options. There is a brutal punch combo, a slow but strong hammer attack, and my favorite, an armor-shattering flail. These let you hit enemies to get ammo out of them. This rewards close fights with full ammo clips. This is a nice system where close-range and long-range attacks help each other. Fighting enemies who focus on close combat became enjoyable, rhythmic fights. I would deflect incoming attacks while hitting back during short breaks between them. This all ended with the always bloody glory kill finishing moves. DOOM is mostly about guns, but The Dark Ages has perhaps the best close-quarters action I have experienced in a shooter.

New weapons also make the gunplay feel very smooth. My favorites include the Pulverizer. This grinds collected skulls to blast wide sprays of fast bone pieces. It can wipe out many demons at once. Another cool weapon is the Chainshot. This shoots a ball and chain that you can pull back. It is great for breaking through shields and armor. Many of the six main firearms have another version you can switch to right away. For example, you can switch between the faster Shotgun and the slower but stronger Super Shotgun. They also have upgrades you can unlock for each setup. This adds more power to their punch. Whether it is a perk that calls down lightning after a good parry, or one that lets you bounce bullets off the shield while it is drilling into a target, these improvements add more depth and reward to the already fun action. The best part is you can destroy any enemy using any weapon, unlike Doom Eternal's more limited combat design.

The DOOM Slayer’s new set of tricks allowed me to come up with amazing new plans to survive increasingly strong fights. Enemies can number in the dozens. Tossing the shield at a distant enemy then instantly bringing it back to parry an incoming attack at the last second, and then blowing the enemy's face off with a shotgun blast — all while moving through waves of beams and fireballs — feels incredibly cool. That is just one example of many exciting moments that happen often in DOOM: The Dark Ages. With both attacking and defending to think about, the action feels more planned than it ever has in a DOOM game. The controls are well designed. This makes everything easy to do once you get used to it. If that is not enough, there are many accessibility options. You can change the game speed, parry timing, and even the colors of things in the game. This lets you make the game as hard or as easy as you want.

Different Game Modes And What Else You Can Expect In DOOM: The Dark Ages

From Giant Mechs To Accessibility Features, Here's How The Game Expands The DOOM Universe

Between normal fights, the Slayer can get into a giant mech suit to fight huge demons. You can also ride a dragon-like beast for air battles. These side activities are mostly fine. Mech combat is slower but hits hard. Air fights involve awkwardly dodging blasts to charge a beam to take out shielded targets. These parts are not very developed. They do not last long enough to make the experience less fun. But I was always eager to get back to the ground for more traditional action.

Like the last game, stages hide secrets. These include collectible figures, story entries, upgrade gems, and treasure stashes to buy more improvements. Solving environmental puzzles is usually simple if you look around well. They often use the Shield Saw, like throwing it to turn on distant machines or shield-bashing blocks into place to climb to higher spots. I do not care much for these side activities, but the rewards are usually worth the effort. The story, which is about stopping a demon prince from stealing a great power from a mighty princess, does not take itself as seriously as Eternal’s story. But it is still a mostly serious and straightforward story. It will not suddenly make DOOM known for its deep stories. I approached the story like the DOOM Slayer himself. Just point me to what needs killing; everything else barely matters enough to get my full attention.

Accessibility is a big focus in DOOM: The Dark Ages. The game is made to be welcoming to as many players as possible. You can change combat difficulty, text size for UI, HUD, and subtitles, and remap controls. There is a high contrast mode to help enemies stand out. You can turn off auto-sprint and automatic weapon switching. You can even adjust how much the screen shakes. You can also make the shield throw automatically seek enemies. These options help players customize their experience. They can make the game feel right for them.

There are also settings for visual effects like daze highlights and parry circles. You can turn on or off tutorials and objective markers. The high contrast mode allows you to desaturate the world's colors and customize highlights for enemies, hazards, and items. This can make key elements much easier to see. You can also adjust font sizes for UI and subtitles separately. There are options for camera field of view, motion blur, and colorblind filters. The game does not support screen readers for menus right now. But it does show visual cues for combat sounds. This helps players who might not be able to hear well. This kind of care for all players is really good to see in a big game.

DOOM: The Dark Ages is modern DOOM done better than ever. It is a bloody, challenging, and planned thrill ride. It tested my skills, made me catch my breath, and always left me wanting more. With the Shield Saw and other great new things, id Software gave me something I did not know I wanted. It proves again that this famous series can still change in ways we have not even thought of.